Data Protection Commission calls for protection of Ghanaian evacuees’ privacy

The Data Protection Commission has actually contacted the Minority Caucus in Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JoyNews and other media homes to safeguard the individual info of 1,964 Ghanaians left from South Africa.

In a news release provided on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the Commission revealed issue over the general public disclosure of the evacuees’ individual information, including their names, signatures and records of monetary help gotten.

It cautioned that making such details public might expose the afflicted people to identity theft, scams and other kinds of damage, specifically offered the risks to their security that a few of them might have dealt with.

The Commission described that the 1992 Constitution safeguards the self-respect and personal privacy of every person. It likewise pointed out the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), which sets out guidelines for the legal collection, usage and disclosure of individual info.

While acknowledging the value of openness, parliamentary oversight, the right to info and press liberty, the Commission worried that these concepts do not instantly validate the unlimited publication of individual information.

It stated the disclosure of the records by the Minority Caucus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JoyNews and other media organisations should be examined based upon the law, the function of the disclosure and the personal privacy rights of the people included.

The Commission even more kept in mind that although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Parliament are signed up information controllers in great standing, their registration does not exempt them from their legal obligations under the Data Protection Act.

It has actually for that reason prompted all the celebrations included to take suitable actions to secure the afflicted people, consisting of right away limiting access to or eliminating individual information from openly offered records where their continued disclosure is not lawfully warranted.

The Commission revealed strategies to perform a regulative evaluation to figure out whether the disclosures had a legal basis, what safeguards were used and whether the personal privacy rights of the evacuees had actually been sufficiently secured.

It stated it would engage the pertinent celebrations as part of the evaluation and take suitable regulative action if any breach of the law is developed.

The Commission repeated that securing individual details and appreciating human self-respect should stay main to efforts to promote public responsibility.

By: Jacob Aggrey